Hill. — On Distribution of Pumice. 303 



highest beds are nearly 400 feet above sea-level. In Napier the 

 higbest beds exceed 300 feet in height ; whilst at Bedcliffe, near 

 Taradale, the highest purnice bed met with is not more than 

 150 feet above sea-level. Behind Maraekakaho, and midway 

 between it and Hampden, the pumice is found at a height 

 of about 1,000 feet, and this height is maintained along the 

 eastern and western sides of the Kuataniwha Plain, and thence 

 onward to Novsewood. The pumice and shingle deposits in the 

 Poverty Bay District, in the immediate vicinity of Gisborne, 

 are not less than 750 feet in height. It would seem as if the 

 area now forming the Buataniwha, Heretaunga, and Poverty 

 Bay plains — and, indeed, the entire country eastward of the 

 great axial ranges of the island, was, towards the close of the 

 Pliocene period, simply one vast surface-deposit of pumice, 

 shingle, lignite, and blue (volcanic) clays, of great depth ; that 

 the sea-shore was much farther to the eastward than it now is ; 

 that the beds of the rivers flowing at that time from the west 

 were hundreds of feet higher than they now are ; and that aerial 

 and aqueous agencies, operating throughout a long period of 

 time, have brought about the lowering of river-beds, the for- 

 mation of Post-pliocene plains and valleys, aud the disappearance 

 of a large area of land to the east of the present coast-line. 

 Of the changes produced on the land, as indicated above, the 

 facts are patent to every observer, and that the land was once 

 greatly extended eastward of the present coast-line must also be 

 evident to those who, like myself, have travelled for any length 

 of time along the coast. Wherever the blue-clay marls are 

 exposed, denudation proceeds at a surprisingly rapid rate. In 

 some places whole hill-sides are now moving seawards — as at 

 Waimarama, Mohaka, Poverty Bay, and other places further 

 north ; and the numerous extended reefs which are exposed 

 almost everywhere along the coast at low water show that this 

 process of coast denudation has been going on for a long time 

 past. 



I do not know whether the time is near or distant when geo- 

 logists will be able to study the geology of places along the same 

 parallels of latitude both to the north and to the south of the 

 equator ; but it seems to me that a good deal might be learnt of 

 the physical and cosmical earth-changes from this mode of study. 

 In concluding my account of the second period of pumice dis- 

 tribution in this district, I venture to make an extract from 

 Charles Darwin's description of the northern portion of Pata- 

 gonia, as given in the " Voyage of the Beayle." Mr. Darwin's 

 description of the Pliocene rocks of Northern Patagonia, in the 

 corresponding latitude as the Pliocene deposits of Hawke's Bay, 

 agrees in a striking manner with the deposits as found in this 

 district — indeed, the description of certain beds found by him 

 in his exploration of Northern Patagonia might almost be used 



